1914 – 1918
How did this war help shape what “New Zealand” meant?He pātai matua — our question for the whole unit. No writing yet. Just look.
Phase 1 · Lessons 1–3
which war? whose world? why did it happen?
WALT · We are learning to
You do not need to know this already. We are building it together.
He pātai · WW1 · WW2 · Both · Unsure?
Mark each one on your sheet: WW1, WW2, both, or unsure. Unsure is a real answer — don’t hide it.
Student resource · Which war is this?→Germany appears in both wars. It is not the same government, coalition or historical situation.
Correct your diagnostic sheet in a second colour.
Whakaaro · no peeking
Without looking back:
Tuhia — books or mini-whiteboards.
telephone · cinema · cars · electric trams · newspapers · factories · trains · ocean liners · aeroplanes
Mātakitaki — circle the TWO things that surprise you most. Then, with a partner: what feels modern? What still feels distant?
By the end of today you should be able to…
I will ask you again at the end.
He pātai
If the crisis began in Europe, why do we call it a WORLD war?
30 seconds, in your book: I think it became global because…
Mātakitaki · follow the war around the map
What connects these places?
Annotate at least four locations on your world-map handout — and the oceans between them.
Tuhia · finish the sentence
It became a world war because
Write → compare with a partner and improve → one class exemplar.
Success: name more than Europe.
Lesson 2 · Who is fighting whom?
These groups change over time. They are not identical to the alliances before the war.
Allied Powers · core early participants
Find each one on the reference map. No colouring yet.
Later we will add other countries as they enter the war.
Central Powers
NOT “AXIS”. Axis = WW2.
He pātai · what is this?
Many peoples and languages lived under one imperial state.
What happens when one political border contains many national identities?
Kupu hou · empire
EMPIRE = one state rules over other territories and peoples.
Tuhia — one-sentence definition in your own words. Then: why might an empire contain people who do not all want the same political future?
Find and point — no colour yet
Teacher calls the place → you point on your own sheet. Pair-check.
Your turn · build the 1914 war map
Accuracy > speed.
Student resource · Europe 1914 map task→Mahi map · keep going
Allied Powers = Central Powers =
This slide stays up while you work. Need help? Use the reference map — not your neighbour’s guess.
Check your map
Correct mistakes in a different colour. Historians revise.
The sides were not frozen in 1914
Add one or two date annotations to your map. Why does this matter when we use the word “team”?
Close the reference map. Use your own map.
Point to: Serbia · Austria-Hungary · Germany · Russia · France · Britain
Then, with a partner: which powerful states sit near or around the Balkans?
Now zoom in
Why might a crisis here attract the attention of much larger powers?
Lesson 3 · From geography to causation
He pātai · predict
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY ATTACKS SERBIA.
Who might react next — and why?
Use your map. Do not guess from memory. Draw your first arrow(s) on the cause-chain sheet.
Student resource · The Powder Keg cause chain→What choices still had to be made? Add one note to your chain: pressure and likelihood ≠ automatic action.
A vocabulary scaffold — not the answer
MAIN helps us remember pressures. It does not explain every decision.
Fact-check the teacher
“Britain and Germany agreed to completely disarm their navies to keep the peace.”
False. Britain and Germany were locked in a naval arms race — dreadnoughts kept being BUILT before 1914, not disarmed. Rewrite the sentence so it fits the evidence.
Look back at the world map
How did empires turn a European conflict into a global one?
Connect at least one colony / dominion / resources pathway to global war on your map.
Find Aotearoa on the map. Hold that thought.
He pātai matua
When can pride in a nation become dangerous?
Short T-chart, then one example tied to Serbia / Austria-Hungary or another sourced case.
28 JUNE 1914 · SARAJEVO
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary is assassinated.
Trigger — but not the whole explanation.
Back to your Balkans map: find Sarajevo before we touch the story.
From murder to world war · build it with me
Complete the chain on your sheet — do not just watch it appear.
Which sentence is stronger history?
Choose. Underline the words that make your choice stronger.
The Powder Keg · first judgement
You have 100 responsibility points. Spread them across:
Your total must equal 100. Be ready to defend your biggest score.
Counterfactual test
Remove your biggest cause.
Does war still happen?
What does your answer reveal about causation?
Tuhia · revise
I used to think…
Now I think…
The evidence that changed / strengthened my view was…
Reallocate your 100 points + one sentence of explanation.
Can you do what we said?
Exit check — books, mini-whiteboards or fingers. One question worth keeping:
Phase 2 · Lessons 4–6
choice · empire · mobilisation — where does Aotearoa sit inside this world?
WALT · We are learning to
Whakaaro · without notes
Mini-whiteboards or books; repair in pairs.
New Zealand in 1914
So how independent was New Zealand in 1914?
Place NZ on the line: colony fully independent state
4 AUGUST 1914
BRITAIN DECLARES WAR ON GERMANY.
Because of New Zealand’s position in the Empire, that declaration also put New Zealand at war.
But that is not the end of the story.
Tuhia: being at war is not the same as deciding
What did support look like in August 1914?
Notice three signs of enthusiasm or support in the carrier.
Then ask: who is visible — and who is not?
He pātai · why might some New Zealanders support the war?
Sort and justify: which are motives? Which are pressures? Which could be both?
29 AUGUST 1914
NEW ZEALAND FORCES OCCUPY GERMAN SAMOA.
What does this tell us about New Zealand’s role in the Empire?
mostly passive follower · active imperial participant · evidence of both — justify with one detail from the carrier.
KEEP THIS. WE RETURN TO SAMOA AFTER THE WAR.
National Identity Evidence Ledger · entry 1
Evidence: New Zealand occupies German Samoa, August 1914.
| What can I claim? | |
|---|---|
| Whose perspective? | |
| What can this NOT prove by itself? | |
| Confidence? | low · medium · high — why? |
Lesson 5 · Would You Go?
Today
Why would people living in the same country make different choices?
By the end, you can explain a decision using historical context — not stereotypes.
1914. The war has just begun.
Read your profile. Decide:
Would this person be likely to volunteer now? YES · NO · UNSURE
And: what I cannot know from this card
Student resource · Would You Go? role cards→Source lab · recruitment
What kind of New Zealander does this message want you to become?
He pātai
What happens if you do not volunteer?
When does encouragement become pressure? Add one new factor to your Would You Go? decision.
Careful history
Different iwi, leaders, whānau and individuals carried different histories, obligations and strategies.
He pātai: what kinds of past experience with the Crown might affect a decision in 1914?
1914 · whose choice?
New Zealand pressed for a Māori contingent. In September 1914 a Māori / Native Contingent was approved.
What does that tell us about race, Empire and belonging?
Māori Recruitment Committee
Why might Māori leaders support military service even while Māori citizenship and Crown relationships remained unequal?
Predict possible arguments — and label your predictions as predictions.
One act · many reasons
A person can support service for different reasons.
Do not turn “served” into “agreed with everything the Crown did”. Add two plausible motives to your evidence table — mark which need more evidence.
Student resource · Māori service evidence pack→Return to your profile
Has your decision changed? YES · NO · STILL UNSURE
What new evidence changed / strengthened your reasoning?
Revise in a second colour. Changing a decision is not failure — it is evidence-responsive thinking.
Lesson 6 · A New Zealand school at war
Whakaaro
What if you were sitting in a New Zealand classroom during the Great War?
Quick prediction: what might school teach you about being a “good citizen”?
New Zealand children were part of the war effort too
He pātai: is this education, mobilisation, or both? Classify — with evidence.
Student resource · School at war inquiry→Source lab · pānui
Who made the School Journal? What did it want children to value?
| creator | |
|---|---|
| audience | |
| message | |
| values | |
| limits |
If school teaches you how a “good New Zealander” should behave…
…who is helping to build national identity?
Rank your top three and defend the ranking.
Compare evidence — not “past bad / present good”
Two similarities / two differences between a 1914–18 schooling source and school as you know it. Nobody has to share political beliefs or whānau military history.
Ledger checkpoint · what does our evidence say so far?
| deeply British / imperial | add one source — if the evidence supports it |
|---|---|
| becoming more distinctly New Zealand | add one source — if the evidence supports it |
| contested / different depending on who you are | add one source — if the evidence supports it |
Leave a box empty rather than force evidence.
Ledger resource · National Identity Evidence Matrix→Can you explain these without notes?
One thing I understand differently now:
Phase 3 · Lessons 7–9
experience · total war — beyond “trenches and Gallipoli”
WALT · We are learning to
Before Gallipoli
Three rapid answers — world map stays visible.
Find it before we explain it
Why might this narrow stretch of water matter? Predict from the geography.
Allied leaders hoped to force a route through the Dardanelles, weaken the Ottoman Empire, and improve connection with Russia.
Which parts of our world-war map does that connect? Trace it.
Mātakitaki · what would be hard about fighting here?
Notice first — the labels appear after you’ve said them.
Hold this question
Gallipoli was a military failure for the Allies.
So why did it become so important to New Zealand memory?
We are not answering this yet. It comes back at the end of the unit.
Lesson 8 · One War, Different Lives
One war. One life. What can we know?
Person A: a real New Zealander at war.
Source lab · the method
Strong history separates what the source shows from what we think it means.
Student resource · Source analysis lab→What does this source add to the map?
Dossier update — Person A at Gallipoli.
DECEMBER 1915 — EVACUATION
Then what?
Add the next location to your timeline/map. Why is “NZ fought at Gallipoli” an incomplete sentence?
France & Belgium · 1916–1918
How is this front different from Gallipoli — geographically and militarily? Map compare, not battle lecture.
Why was this war so deadly?
Choose TWO technologies. Explain how each changed the battlefield.
Modern technology did not make war clean. It made killing and supply more industrial.
Trenches were part of a larger system
What has to keep working BEHIND the trench for the trench to exist? Add arrows / dependencies.
12 OCTOBER 1917
Around 843 New Zealanders died — or were dying — on this single day.
What should a statistic make us ASK — not just feel?
Put the scale into a new form
If about 9% of New Zealand’s population served…
at a school of 1,000 students, what would that look like?
≈ 90 people from one school community. Then the compulsory questions: What does this comparison help us imagine? What does it NOT make equivalent?
Same war — different role, different evidence
Person B: a Māori serviceman of the Pioneer Battalion.
What can this source tell us that Person A’s sources could not?
Pioneer work was essential — and dangerous
Why might later memory focus more on infantry combat than this work?
Organisation is evidence
What can organisation itself tell us about how the military classified people and roles? Chronology note + one evidence question.
Separation · reunion · belonging
Who gets to serve together?
How could military organisation affect belonging and identity?
Lesson 9 · Nursing, home front & Total War
What changes when our war story follows a nurse?
Kupu hou · total war
TOTAL WAR = a war that reaches far beyond the front line.
Draw the arrows: who depends on whom? Build your systems map.
Student resource · Total War systems map→Systems stress test
Remove one node from your system.
Trace two consequences through your map.
Total War becomes a system — not vocabulary.
You are 13, in a New Zealand school, during the Great War
How can a school become part of a war without becoming a battlefield? Classify: practical support / identity formation / both.
Before WW1…
Compulsory military training already reached many boys from age 12.
How might that shape what war and citizenship felt like in 1914?
Source lab · what values is this page trying to teach?
One source-lab row — the actual carrier, projected.
Who helped define a “good New Zealander” during the war?
Rank your top three — defend with evidence from this phase.
There is no single “New Zealand war experience”.
| Person A | Person B | Person C | school / home-front source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What overlaps? | ||||
| What differs? | ||||
| Whose life do we still not see? | ||||
Ledger checkpoint · what has EXPERIENCE added?
Choose evidence for at least two:
Then complete: claim + evidence + perspective + limit + confidence.
Ledger resource→So far, did the war mostly…
Commit — then the compulsory question: what evidence could make you change your mind?
Before conscription, can you explain…
Next problem: what happens when volunteering is no longer enough?
Phase 4 · Lessons 10–11
conscription · dissent · contested loyalty — Waikato whenua at the centre
WALT · We are learning to
Use your Total War systems map
Why would a government want more soldiers?
What happens when casualties rise but volunteer numbers fall? Trace it: army → family → farm → government → economy.
By late 1915…
Volunteers were not keeping up with the need for reinforcements.
What choices does a government have? Rank these from most to least acceptable — BEFORE you learn what NZ did.
Kupu hou
CONSCRIPTION = compulsory military service.
New Zealand’s Military Service Act became law in 1916.
Tuhia: how is conscription different from volunteering? One sentence.
Two arguments you might hear in 1916
Which value is each argument protecting? — fairness · liberty · duty · equality · conscience · security. Annotate, then take your first continuum position.
Lesson 10 · Conscience and the state
Some Pākehā men also refused military service
He pātai: what makes refusal principled rather than simply avoidance?
The scale of refusal
About 600 men declared conscientious objections.
Around 286 were imprisoned in New Zealand.
Why might a government punish refusal during Total War? Cause-and-consequence note.
1917
14 imprisoned objectors were forcibly sent overseas.
What does this reveal about the limits of individual conscience during wartime?
Source lab where carriers allow: official rationale vs objector account.
“A country at war has the right to force people to serve.”
You may move. Use evidence.
Lesson 11 · Māori futures under pressure
Stop. Rewind.
What earlier relationship with the Crown might matter when the Crown later demands military service?
Build the chain in your book
Past injustice does not disappear because the calendar changes.
How might that change the meaning of “duty”? Tuhia — one historically grounded QUESTION, not a verdict.
Te Puea Hērangi · Waikato / Kīngitanga
Resisted conscription — in a context shaped by the Waikato invasion, raupatu, and Tāwhiao’s stance against taking up arms for the Crown.
What history makes her resistance intelligible?
Māui Pōmare · MP / recruitment leader
Supported Māori service — and later the extension of conscription — arguing service could demonstrate readiness for full citizenship and equal status.
What FUTURE is Pōmare trying to achieve through participation? Strategy → hoped-for outcome.
Āpirana Ngata · Ngāti Porou · MP / recruitment leader
Promoted Māori recruitment, seeing wartime participation as a way to strengthen claims to equal status and advance Māori interests.
How is this similar to — and different from — Pōmare’s strategy?
Compare the strategy
| Te Puea | Pōmare | Ngata | |
|---|---|---|---|
| historical context | |||
| view of service | |||
| relationship to Crown / Empire | |||
| hoped-for Māori future | |||
| evidence / source limit |
Kōrero
Can leaders care deeply about Māori futures — and still reach opposite conclusions about the same war?
Discuss using evidence. This is not “pick your favourite leader”.
1917–18
Conscription is extended to Māori — with the ballot focused on Waikato.
Why would applying the policy HERE be especially contentious? Return to your context chain before answering.
The Māori ballot · what the numbers say
| called up | 552 |
|---|---|
| medically examined | 116 |
| sent to camp | 99 |
| embarked overseas | 0 — no Waikato Māori conscript was sent overseas before the war ended |
What do the numbers TELL us? What can they NOT tell us about why men resisted?
State power
Men were arrested and imprisoned for resisting conscription.
What does state punishment tell us about whose definition of loyalty had LEGAL power?
Pānui · how did newspapers describe Waikato resistance?
Highlight the loaded wording YOURSELVES — it stays unmarked until you find it.
1918 · the decision hearing
A son may be called up. Your job is NOT to tell the family what they “would” do.
Your job is to explain:
Your advice must use…
Strong history can explain a choice without pretending the choice was simple.
Kōrero tikanga · for the hearing
Return to the continuum
Can refusal be an act of loyalty?
Loyalty to whom? To what? Defined by whom? — Movement on the continuum requires evidence.
Ledger checkpoint
New Zealand identity was CONTESTED because…
| claim | |
|---|---|
| evidence | |
| whose perspective | |
| historical context | |
| limitation | |
| confidence |
Can you explain…
Next problem: once the fighting stops, who gets to decide what “peace” means?
Phase 5 · Making the peace
armistice · Paris · Versailles — power at the table
WALT · We are learning to
11 NOVEMBER 1918
The fighting stops.
Does that mean the problems are solved?
List three problems that still exist after four years of war.
borders · security · prisoners · damage · debt · empires · colonies · blame · food · refugees · political change
Which one is easier? Why? One sentence.
Paris, 1919
Nearly thirty countries were represented.
But not all voices had equal power.
What makes a seat at the table powerful — or weak? Predict: army · economy · casualties · empire · prestige · alliances.
Four delegations dominate
You do not need their biographies. You need their GOALS.
Student resource · Big Four role cards (with private victory conditions)→Read your role card
Your delegation has goals the others cannot see.
Rank your delegation’s non-negotiables.
He pātai · fair to whom?
Can all four definitions of fairness win at once? Predict the hardest conflict.
The simulation · negotiate
You have 100 influence points. Spend them across:
You cannot maximise everything.
Student resource · negotiation sheet (3 rounds)→New information. Change your plan.
Your teacher will deliver ONE shock card:
Revise at least one term — and explain why.
Treaty signing — before the reveal
Sign your group’s peace. Then answer:
Submit your treaty before you meet the real one.
Versailles · selected terms
What is closest to your treaty? What is most different? — Different ≠ automatically wrong.
Fact-check · again
Legal responsibility in a treaty is not the same thing as a simple historical verdict on every cause. Rewrite an oversimplified textbook sentence.
Precision matters
The Treaty did NOT set the final total reparations bill.
Why does this matter when someone says “Versailles charged Germany £X”? — Source-precision note.
Representation
Germany did not negotiate the final terms as an equal partner.
How might being PRESENTED with terms change how a peace is experienced?
28 JUNE 1919
BILL MASSEY SIGNS THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES FOR NEW ZEALAND.
Compare 1914 with 1919: what has changed?
Careful claim
Versailles is EVIDENCE of changing international status.
It is NOT a magic “independence day”.
What evidence would we need before claiming New Zealand was fully sovereign?
Whose futures were being decided — without equal power?
Choose one — explain which decision affected them.
Remember Samoa, 1914?
New Zealand occupied German Samoa during the war.
The peace settlement and League system helped turn that wartime occupation into a New Zealand MANDATE.
What does this do to a simple story that WW1 made New Zealand “less colonial”?
Add this complication to your Identity Ledger.
Naming the war · again
“The war to end all wars.” Does this name still fit?
Can you explain…
Next problem: soldiers return, influenza spreads, land is redistributed — and the war becomes memory.
Phase 6 · Memory & identity
aftermath · memory · identity — land, influenza, Samoa, memorials, and whose story becomes THE story
WALT · We are learning to
Open your first Know / Think / Wonder
Second colour, today’s date — make your thinking visible.
The scale
More than 18,000 New Zealanders died as a result of the war.
What does a national statistic HIDE? — whānau · schools · workplaces · rural communities · iwi / hapū · future children / relationships.
Convert one statistic into a statement about people / community — without inventing an individual story.
Coming home did not mean returning to the life you left
He pātai: what does a country OWE people after asking them to fight? Rank the obligations and defend.
Rehabilitation · reward · nation-building
The government helped thousands of returned soldiers onto land.
Why might land be seen as all three at once? Analyse the map: location · size · purpose · what the map CANNOT tell us.
Land is not an empty reward
How can one policy support some people while increasing pressure on others?
The war is ending. Influenza is spreading.
Why might a GLOBAL WAR help a DISEASE move quickly?
Connect the pandemic to your Total War systems map.
November 1918
Around 9,000 people died in New Zealand in the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Why should this sit INSIDE our war aftermath rather than in a completely separate unit? Write one connection to movement / demobilisation / public systems.
What responsibilities come with occupying / governing another place?
The consequence
About 8,500 Samoans died — around 22% of the population.
New Zealand authorities failed to quarantine the Talune. A later inquiry found administrative neglect and poor judgement.
What does responsibility look like when a government’s failure harms people it governs?
Comparative evidence
American Samoa avoided the same catastrophe — through strict quarantine.
Why does a comparison STRENGTHEN a historical claim about New Zealand administration?
1920
The League of Nations gave New Zealand a MANDATE over Western Samoa.
Samoan leaders were not equal decision-makers in the process.
Did New Zealand leave WW1 LESS colonial — or MORE able to act as a colonial power?
Tuhia: an evidence-based “both / contradiction” paragraph.
Ledger · add a complication
New Zealand became more internationally distinct from Britain WHILE ALSO exercising colonial power over Samoa.
| evidence | |
|---|---|
| perspective / affected people | |
| limitation | |
| confidence |
Kupu hou · memorial
A memorial is evidence of how people CHOSE TO REMEMBER.
It is not a transparent window onto every wartime experience.
What choices does a memorial-maker have to make? — names · language · symbols · location · who counts · what values are praised · what is omitted.
Rukuhia School · Waikato
What happens to the idea of a “world war” when we bring it back to ONE local school community?
Local inquiry
Find ONE local carrier: memorial · honour board · school roll · Online Cenotaph person · Papers Past article.
What can this local source add that a national textbook CANNOT?
Kaitāia · 1916
This memorial was erected in 1916 — WHILE THE WAR WAS STILL HAPPENING.
Māori and English inscriptions appear on the memorial.
How is a memorial made DURING the war different from one made years later?
Pānui · read the Māori and English inscriptions as sources
Every memorial leaves something out
What might not fit easily into a traditional war memorial?
Choose one omission — explain how it changes the national story.
Remember our question from Gallipoli?
It was a military failure.
So why did it become such a powerful national story?
Retrieve your evidence from the WHOLE unit before you see the interpretations.
Interpretation A
Gallipoli helped New Zealanders see themselves as a distinct people — tested far from home and compared with other nations.
What evidence from the unit could support this? — separate NZ service identity · “Kiwi” usage · shared sacrifice / commemoration · distinct representation later at Versailles.
Interpretation B
The idea that Gallipoli “created New Zealand” is partly a LATER national story — one that selects some experiences and sidelines others.
What evidence from the unit could support this? — British imperial identity remained strong · Māori responses were varied · Gallipoli was one theatre · dissent / home front / Samoa complicate the story.
Historians can disagree without one side being “fake”
Which interpretation explains more of OUR evidence?
Compulsory: what evidence does your preferred interpretation STRUGGLE to explain?
Whose WW1? · Whose Te Pakanga Tuatahi o te Ao?
You are curating an exhibition:
“THE FIRST WORLD WAR & THE MAKING OF NEW ZEALAND”
You may include only SIX stories / artefacts.
Your candidate list: the 12–16 verified carriers from across the whole unit.
Student resource · Whose WW1? curation (Part C)→ Kaiako · Whose WW1? assessment rubric→For each of your six…
Curation planning — in the resource, Part C.
The harder half of curation
What did you leave out?
How did that change the New Zealand story your exhibition tells?
Name at least TWO exclusions — and their consequence.
Ledger · final entries
Choose your STRONGEST THREE pieces of evidence.
For each: claim · evidence · perspective · complication / limit · confidence.
Ledger resource · final selection→He pātai matua · the whole unit
HOW DID THE FIRST WORLD WAR CHANGE WHAT IT MEANT TO BE A NEW ZEALANDER — AND WHO GOT TO DEFINE THAT IDENTITY?
Written paragraph, essay or spoken explanation — your class pathway.
Return to the four names
Has your preferred name changed? What does your choice EMPHASISE — and what does it HIDE?
Naming resource · final rationale→Whakaaro · what version of this history did you know before this unit?
Private reflection first; sharing is optional. You do not have to share personal or whānau military history.
Can you now…
Which one was hardest? Which one matters most now?